BA Sub-Tank Beginner's Guide
Tanks fill a critical role in BA of protecting the party from mobs that hit extremely hard. As per usual content, there are the standard Main Tank and Subtank. It is highly advised that new players prefer the ST role unless absolutely necessary (such as when there are low numbers of tanks).
New Player Tank Responsibilities
Peel mobs away from Healers and DPS if MT does not have them.
Assist with raidwide mitigation with abilities like Reprisal, Shake if Off, Divine Veil, etc.
If necessary, act as an MT for a specific room during the "Rooms" phase of BA.
Rooms
After Boss 2, you will discover the teleporter and reach 6 rooms that need to be tanked. If there are not sufficient veteran tanks in the raid, you will be expected to tank for a room.
Preparations
(Optional) stand on the trap after using your invulnerability to clear space in the room. Note: Always use "/y { trap } { Do you need it }" to check for any indom tanks that may want to pop the trap in your stead.
Enable tank stance.
Switch magia to defensive stance (same element as the room) and disable /magiaauto if it is enabled.
Once ET has been called
Once the raid lead calls an ET, watch the time and stand on the glowing blue "button" in the center of the room.
You should tank mobs one at a time (unless DPS or healers accidentally pull a mob).
Once room has been cleared, turn off your stance to not cause issues with aggro.
[Beginner] Action Loadouts
New tanks to BA will customarily be expected to be Subtanks. This is not required, but this is the "typical" starting point for tanks.
If you would like to read more about main tanking, please see the Main Tank Beginner's Guide.
The following are some tray loadout options based on your holster level. These loadouts are suitable to first timers in BA, but as you gain experience and clears, you can look into adding some of the other generally recommended utility.
Note: Logos Action order affects which duty action it will be slotted into. Feel free to use the "Swap" action at the Logos Manipulator for the most comfortable keybinds.
On Entry
Crack the following two trays, in order Spirit of the Remembered first, ST Tray second.
Spirit of the Remembered
This should be cracked and used on entry.
ST tray
This is a Martialist + Cure L III tray as found in many places on the following logos. This can help provide survivability to yourself and your party.
Note: You can switch Cure L III for any other utility that you would prefer.
Recommended Holsters
This loadout is focused on death prevention for folks with limited holster capacity by bringing Cure L or Cure L III. Cure L III is preferred as it will help the healers in the case of dangerous scenarios. Use the trays from top to bottom if you are KO'd
Optionally: With a fourth tray, you can add a second spirit of the remembered
Another option if you only have three trays, this loadout provides you with more "gambles" if you die to mechanics. Unfortunately as such you rely more on Spirit of the Remembered proccing instead of upfront death prevention. The final tray provides you with Cure L III that you can use to try to stay alive to the end of BA.
This is the basic loadout that most new tanks will join BA as ST. It provides you with the ability to fill the DPS job, while having a single backup MT tray for when things go wrong and you need to become MT.
Note: You can switch Cure L III for any other utility that you would prefer.
Recipes for Recommended Logos Holsters
Spirit of the Remembered
Martialist + Cure L III #1
Martialist + Spirit of the Remembered
Martialist + Cure III #2
[Intermediate] Useful Wisdom and Logos Options for Tanks
Tank Wisdoms
Only one of the following should be used at a time in BA.
Wisdom of the Martialist - The DPS Tank wisdom. This should be used unless you are main tank.
Wisdom of the Guardian - The Main Tank wisdom. This (or Wisdom of the Indomitable) is required to be MT.
Wisdom of the Indomitable - Advanced Main Tank Wisdom. Please see the associated guides for details.
While there may be other Wisdoms that tanks can use, they should not be used once inside BA.
Useful Logos Actions
The following logos actions have a place in a variety of loadouts for BA. These are all solid choices for "filler" logos actions in BA.
Cure L III - This is not typically necessary when you have healers, but due to BA's entry method, it is completely possible to have zero healers in your party. Cure L III allows you to be a raid healer.
Rapid Recast - This can be used to get more uses of key cooldowns that can give you a bit of a damage boost or allow you more uses of your defensive cooldowns.
Protect L - Increases physical defense, this is primarily important for the tanks, but can be the difference from dying to certain mechanics or accidentally pulling mobs.
Shell L - Increases magic defense Special note: Use the Protect L + Esuna Mneme which come from fundamental logograms. Shell L mneme comes from mitigatives which is expensive and should be saved for most other roles.
Useful for the first half of BA, unnecessary from Boss 3 onwards
Paralyze L III - This can be very useful for giving MTs a bit of survivability if paralyze procs correctly. It also can interrupt some of the high damage abilities that mobs have, such as the biblyos magic hammer.
Death L - This has no use on the bosses, but up until rooms have been cleared, this can instantly kill high health mobs and speed up the run.
Advanced Guides Index
The following advanced tanking topics are available in the Veteran Survival Guide once you are familiar with BA.
How to MT
Wisdom of the Indomitable
Double Edge L